Broadchurch Recap: Season 2 Episode 2

“Broadchurch” Season 2 Episode 2 aired on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, at 9:00 p.m. on ITV in the UK. The defense succeeds in having Joe’s confession removed from the testimony, while Alec and Ellie lose a witness. Find out what happened in this recap below.

The episode opens with Detective Hardy (David Tennant) talking to new police recruits. This is apparently where he’s reassigned now, as his health is still at risk. He doesn’t like his new job, and Hardy gets reprimanded by a superior officer for demotivating the newbies. He needs to shape up, or else he should start thinking about doing something else.

He then gets a frantic call from Claire Ripley (Eve Miles), the Sandbrook witness he’s been protecting. She cries about receiving a voice mail from her ex-husband, Lee (James D’Arcy). He says he misses her. How did he get the number? What does he want?

Hardy didn’t have to take long to find out, as Lee has been following him all around town, hoping to catch his wife with him. There’s a confrontation between them, with Lee saying he only wants to see Claire and get his life back together again. He’s still insisting that he’s not the guilty party in the Sandbrook case.

Meanwhile, Ellie (Olivia Colman) is at Hardy’s place, waiting for him, and as she snoops around his files on Sandbrook, Hardy catches her, and he gets mad. Their argument, however, is cut short because they’ve been called by Jocelyn Knight (Charlotte Rampling), the prosecution’s QC, to come over her house.

Jocelyn wanted to tell them that they may have botched the prosecution’s biggest chance of success in the Latimer case. Apparently, that time Joe confessed, Ellie beat her husband in his holding cell, out of anger and pain. There are medical records of it, the copies of which are with both the prosecution and the defense.

Jocelyn points out that because of this, the defense could argue that Joe was coerced into admitting to the crime of killing Danny Latimer, which means they could lose this case, and Joe could walk free.

Ellie, naturally, feels really bad about it. More so because, if this comes out in the trial, the press will know, and her son will learn that his mother beat his father at the police station.

And as Jocelyn has assumed, this is exactly what the defense did.

During the trial, Joe’s attorney, Sharon Bishop (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), had Hardy confirm if such a beating took place. What was Hardy supposed to say? Regardless of the timeline, because Ellie confronted her husband after his admission, it’s still suggestive of coercion. The defense moves to strip the confession off the case. The judge agrees and orders the jury to disregard Joe Miller’s confession in its entirety. Point one for the defense.

The defense also attempted to draw their case closer to the Latimers, exposing the fact that Mark (Andrew Buchan) laid a hand on Danny before, and that the couple has been having marital problems, which Danny was aware of. Beth (Jodie Whitaker) is devastated to have to admit in front of the jury that her husband cheated on her. She’s also nearly hysterical. What does this have to do with Danny’s death?

While this is going on, Ellie is with Claire and not in the trial. She is convincing her to meet with Lee, based on Hardy’s plans. Putting them together is a risk, and Hardy knows this. Lee could end up killing Claire. But Hardy thinks that this is an opportunity for him to correct his mistakes in the Sandbrook case. He could get something from Lee. Ellie suggests making this meeting official and letting the chief of police know, but Hardy did not want to.

So finally, Claire and Lee meet in Ellie’s old house. She’s standing guard in the front door, while Hardy is by the kitchen in the next room. Claire thinks she’s in safe hands, which is why she agreed to this, and unknown to all of them, Hardy is actually taping the meeting.

However, as Claire stands guard outside, Beth learns that her old neighbor, the wife of the man who killed her son, is back. And because of what happened in the trial earlier, she goes outside and confronts Ellie, hysterically blaming her because the judge disregarded Joe’s confession. Ellie could only keep apologizing to Beth. But this commotion becomes a convenient distraction for Lee who escapes out the window with Claire in tow.

The episode ends with Hardy realizing that his key witness in the Sandbrook case may have been abducted. Meanwhile, Beth’s water breaks, and she’s about to go into labor.

That’s what happened on “Broadchurch” Season 2 Episode 2, which aired on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, at 9:00 p.m. on ITV in the UK. Viewers in the US can start watching the second season beginning March 4, 2015 on BBC America. Follow Movie News Guide (MNG) for more about this series.

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Rachel will watch any TV show once to see if it's worth following. She watches 55 to 60 American, British and Canadian TV shows on any regular week. Glued to TV, she has not seen the world outside in a while. :P